Pages

Monday, March 5, 2012

Kindles For Kids--Authors and Writers

Happy Monday, everyone!

This week, I'll be going over all the fine details before we kick off the beginning of Kindles for Kids next Monday, March 12th.

My goal is to make this fun and for anyone to help in any capacity they can. If you have ideas, tips, or suggestions, please don't hesitate to let me know. You can either leave a comment here or contact me here.

Today, I'll be focusing on authors (published) and writers (non-published). Tomorrow, I'll put the contest in its own post so it's easier to refer to, and on Wednesday, I'll have the PDF for the flyer available as well as ways readers can help.

For Authors

There are a couple of ways you can help:

If you have the rights to your story, and feel so inclined, you could donate your novel. If you have the rights to your story, I can load them on each Kindle Fire I'm able to purchase. Because this is for the pediatric unit, I ask that all donations (which will be personally screened by me) have no higher than a PG rating, no excessive violence, no sexual situations (although a peck or similar types of kissing is permissible), no abusive relationships, and very limited language (swearing). What would be the ideal story? Something that catches a child's imagination and helps them forget everything they're going through for the moment. Something that is well-written and well-formatted.

If you don't have the rights to your story, you're more than welcome to donate a copy. If a book is donated this way, I will only load one copy per Kindle Fire that I receive. (Let's say an author donates two copies of her book, and let's say we make the goal of ten Kindle Fires. I will put a copy of the book on only two of the Kindle Fires, because that's all the copies of the book I have. I would *not* put the book on all the Kindle Fires.

Spread the word. I am only one voice in a sea of tens of thousands, if not more. I can only reach so far on my own, and need your help to pass the word along. You can do this by tweeting, Facebooking, emailing your friends, blogging about it, forums, and talking to people. On Wednesday, I'll have a full post that I can send the html for if you'd like to just copy and paste. Any way you can share the news helps and is very much appreciated.

For Writers (and authors)

There are a couple of ways you can help:

Getting the word out as listed above.

Participating in a short story contest that I'm hosting. From now until the 15th of April, you can submit a short story that will be considered for an anthology that will be uploaded to all Kindle Fires that will be donated to the hospital. Because of the nature of this project, there will be no monetary recompense. If your story is chosen to be part of the anthology, you will receive an e-copy of the anthology. I will not be selling or making any money off of the anthology. Here are the submission requirements. All submissions should be sent to:

Up to 7,000 words. Courier, 12pt font, double-spaced. A cover page with only the title, and please do not put your name anywhere on the actual submission. In the email itself, I'll need your name and for you to verify your contact email. Please attach your story rather than putting it in the body of the email. Entries that do not follow the steps for submissions that I've outlined here risk being disqualified. If your email goes through, you will receive an automated response letting you know I got it. If you don't, please resend. If you still don't get a response, contact me here.

What type of story am I looking for? Any type of fairy tale short story: re-telling, fractured, different genre (SF, contemporary--anything that doesn't fall under the fantasy umbrella, although it totally can. The Sky--and beyond--is the limit here.) It can be anything, but at heart, it needs to be a fairy tale. Because I want the title to fit with the stories themselves, once I've gone through them, I'll come up with a couple of titles that everyone will be able to vote on. :)

Thank you so much for all that have, and will, participate! I could not do this without you. If you have any other ideas or suggestions, please feel free to let me know in the comments or through email.

Danyelle, this is wonderful. Good for you, it's a great idea. By the way, consider yourself tagged. I know you must be busy right now, but I'd love it if you could provide answers on your blog to the questions I've answered on mine. Then you can choose your own tag-ees. Not sure that's a word, but you know what I mean. Looking forward to reading your answers.Love Valentina

Hi Danyelle, what a great idea to give a Kindle Fire to the hospital for kids. I have four published children's books that are eBooks as well as paperbacks and I would be willing to donate them as eBooks for your Kindle Fire's.

I have two colourfully illustrated, reluctant readers books in my Rascals Series: (Star-Crossed Rascals and Rascals Sing at The Opera House.) These two books are guaranteed to make kids laugh, so might cheer up sick children.

I have an adventure story: Molly Gumnut Rescues a Bandicoot. This book is also colourfully illustrated and guaranteed to make kids laugh as well as have them on the edge of their seats.

And the fourth book is a fantasy story: Velvet Ball and The Broken Fairy. This book isn't illustrated, but will suit children from seven to twelve. This is an adventure fantasy about a little bald girl that lost all her hair after being ill. She gets bullied at school until she meets a weird little sprite called Roseberry. The two set out to teach the bullies a lesson, though not violently. It's meant to be funny and inspiring.